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OT: "pay to play" events aka "the Burlington Global Music Fest"


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i've heard rumors that these exist, but this is the first time i've heard of anything like this near me.

 

this is the advert from my local craigslist:

 

http://peoria.craigslist.org/muc/2911053393.html

 

 

the fact that this thing has even gotten to the point where a _flyer_ has been made up for it turns my stomach. 150$, FIVE MINUTES ON STAGE AND A SHARED HOTEL ROOM. that's not how much they're paying you, that's how much YOU have to pay THEM. for the privilege of playing the first annual whatever-fest in the bustling metropolis of Burlington, Iowa.

 

i feel terrible for anyone who gets suckered into this. one of the reasons i'm comfortable with the Decline of Paid Music is that it's resulted in the ouster of so many of the parasites of the music community - people like "event coordinators" and "producers", "record execs" (still not sure what that is) and the other soulless money-grubbing vampires that were essentially the 'service industry' of the music world - producing no output of their own, only moving money around. technology has fortunately empowered the individual independent musician to do these jobs in 2012, so there are fewer and fewer of these useless folks around.

 

apparently though, one of them is making a last ditch push in Burlington.

 

being a musician in 2012 is undeniably a labor of love for most of us. to require the musician to pay these kinds of sums (OR ANY SUMS) for some meaningless stage time makes me sick to my stomach. i hope somebody kicks this guy's ass in the worst way.

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The worst part of the "Pay to Play" things?

EVERYBODY IS INVITED. Just spend some money and be a star.

 

Taking control or actual care of the quality of the performers? ZERO.

 

So, the shows could and will suck big hairy monkey balls. And that says it all about those shows. Suck.

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NO WAY!!! I play in a cover band that's a guarantee paid event for me. I gig so often that I'd play for free for an opportunity to perform originals in a decent venue in front of a live, receptive audience. But there is no way that I am going to pay for that privilege while someone else profits. Pay to play is a sick dichotomy designed by promoters who have little in the way of musical talent to make quick cash and cover their asses. I've seen many respectable and legitimate original acts waste time, money and resources chasing these 'talent' contests, or exposure festivals which never pan out or deliver their promises. Here's a clue... call up the promoter and pretend your an 'agent' representing your band and that your appearance fee and contract rider will be fed-ex'd the next day. How quick will that conversation be. ;)

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Pay to play is a sick dichotomy designed by promoters who have little in the way of musical talent to make quick cash and cover their asses. I've seen many respectable and legitimate original acts waste time, money and resources chasing these 'talent' contests, or exposure festivals which never pan out or deliver their promises.

 

 

They clearly aren't doing the math.

 

Venues make money by selling adult beverage. Pay to play only makes mathematical sense if your music is so bad, you actually drive customers out of the bar. (In which case, feel free to pay to play, but better still, improve your music.) Even if your core following is only your bandmates and their spouses, you are making the bar a bit of money.

 

The more common "pay to play" scenario that I see is the "prestige" gig, and I guess this is what this is going for. This one looks like a total rip, the more common is to have duking-out contests to appear at the backwater slot of some big festival or something. As if this alone will be a shortcut from the hard work of schmoozing and building up in a scene. No one's going to care what big name festival you grabbed the 10AM slot for.

 

(WTF, 5 minutes on stage? Unless they are sharing gear bigtime, the setup / teardown is going to be five times as long as the set. They certainly would not bands bringing along fancy keyboardists with their hand-programmed synths...)

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The worst part of the "Pay to Play" things?

EVERYBODY IS INVITED. Just spend some money and be a star.


 

I have a slightly different take on this particular one (which I know zero about): I view it like a beauty pageant, senior olympics, pie-eating contest, etc. There are no promises being made here, there's no pretension about it. Here is their website: http://out4more.com/home

 

It's at the Howard Johnsons.:lol: "Pay-to-Play" typically involves a venue like a bar, that is passing off "pro" entertainment to it's customers, aka ripping off musicians. This "festival" is entirely different: It's like intramural basketball or bowling, where one is paying to play a game.

 

The audience for this thing? There is none.;) The audience will be friends of the band. It's not a "concert" per se, so they aren't throwing a bunch of people on a stage to rake in the $$ from the thousands or rabid fans at the........ Howard Johnsons.:lol: It's gonna be a bunch of high school kids and their parents. $30 bucks a piece for a 5-piece to play their first "gig" isn't so bad.

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cygnus - nice find on the website, and with the HoJos.

 

 

i think for even a high school 5 piece to have to pay 30 bux each to play for 20 minutes sets a bad precedent in their young minds. burlington has plenty of barns with outlets where they could do the same thing for free. they could call it 'hay to play' or something. wackawackawacka

 

anyway, regardless, this flyer is just full of deceptive stupid crap. 100 bands? i'll bet exactly 3 have been booked.

 

 

 

actually, just found their Myspace. it appears to be some rappers that do this thing all the time in chicago - but usually with rappers. makes sense.

 

http://www.myspace.com/out4moreinc

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The audience for this thing? There is none.
;)
The audience will be friends of the band. It's not a "concert" per se, so they aren't throwing a bunch of people on a stage to rake in the $$ from the thousands or rabid fans at the........ Howard Johnsons.
:lol:
It's gonna be a bunch of high school kids and their parents. $30 bucks a piece for a 5-piece to play their first "gig" isn't so bad.

 

Good find.

 

It almost looks more like a "rap battle", though, not a band show. That makes the timeline make more sense, however, it makes the individual cost staggeringly high (unless you are talking rap crews).

 

And, I doubt it costs more than a grand or two to rent out the ballroom of a Burlington Iowa Hojo for a day (I'm being generous, I'm thinking more like $750 or so). Add, what, a couple grand for a small PA with sound / lights / DJ rig rental? (Being generous again). The "hotel room" is $50 a night at non-convention rates, I assume a discount could be worked out. They will have to hire a photographer for the photo shoot (unless they cop out and grab "hobbyist with DSLR and Photoshop", too easy for them to do) and print promos etc.

 

Still, it's hard for me to see upfront costs exceeding $5 grand, which means if they get 50 star-struck rappers and zero audience they've still probably made a profit. However, it does tell me that they are, indeed, pricing this on the assumption that there will be zero audience. They are probably right. :lol:

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it looks like they realize they're aren't many rappers in Burlington, IA and they're maybe trying to 'expand their horizons' while maintaining perfect ignorance of the production needs of every other genre ever.

 

even if it does turn out to be an all rap show, a convoy of rappers heading from Chicago to Burlington, IA will probably get whittled down pretty well by our highway patrol. i say this not in a racial way, but because my brother was one and i'm familiar with what they key in on here in my state.

 

either way i almost want to go at this point

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100 bands? i'll bet exactly 3 have been booked.




 

I'm guessing it probably costs 5K to put this on. 2k for the hall, 1K for hotel rooms, etc. Therefore, I'm assuming they will pull the plug unless they get 50 bands. Even that is a pretty small profit.

 

I wanna see this thing.:lol: The logistics alone would make it worth it. Someone's going to end up with a 6:45 a.m. time slot.:lol: Realistically, there can be no more than 5 bands per hour. If they go from 8 am to 11 pm, they might be able to squeeze in 50. Noobs setting up amps et al can take some serious, serious time.

 

They might make money on selling hot dogs and sodas. There's no doubt that they will try to sell "promo" packages, TAXI-like services, maybe even $50 more to use the sound system or lights. Rock and Roll kids, Rock and Roll.:lol:

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The worst thing about pay to play is that there's no filter. Can you pay? Then you can play, no matter how gawd-awful your show is.


Guess they're hoping all the bands have enough relatives to fill the venue.

 

Ever been to a wedding fair? This thing is basically the same thing. Look at the poster http://out4more.com/home At the bottom, it says "vendors", which means that they will be selling booth space. I'm sure there will be people trying to sell recording time, gear, and all sorts of crap to high school kids... and their parents.:lol: The money isn't in attendance, it's renting booth space, extra hotel rooms, burgers etc. I'm guessing that a band can't leave the premises without losing their time slot, so they will have to eat there.

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Here's an article in the LA Weekly about the "pay to play" that's been going on in W Hollywood for YEARS.

 

http://www.laweekly.com/2010-11-04/music/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-to-play-the-sunset-strip/

 

When I was playing in LA, bands didn't have to pay, but we didn't get paid a guarantee, either. Each band was given colored discount coupons for their night. If 50 people showed up and paid with your discount coupons, then you got fifty bucks. But it was Hollywood, right? At least it wasn't Iowa. :)

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I did 15 mins at an open mic last night, cost me a couple of bucks for a beer/coffee while I waited for my turn.

If you just want to play, there are plenty of opportunities if you look (at least around here), can't see the point in paying to play like in this post, although the guys/gals I jam/play with do just to rent the rehearsal studio once a week. $20 a month 'ain't killing me and I don't have to lug my kb around either!

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Here's an article in the LA Weekly about the "pay to play" that's been going on in W Hollywood for YEARS.

http://www.laweekly.com/2010-11-04/music/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-to-play-the-sunset-strip/

When I was playing in LA, bands didn't have to pay, but we didn't get paid a guarantee, either. Each band was given colored discount coupons for their night. If 50 people showed up and paid with your discount coupons, then you got fifty bucks. But it was Hollywood, right? At least it wasn't Iowa.
:)

 

"Ticket" shows are less of a problem to me, but also a problem of a different sort. If I was a popular enough band where I knew I could draw x number of tickets pretty regularly, a ticket show makes sense. Problem is, if I was *that* kind of band, it would probably be more sound economics wise to take the realms yourself and do the promotion on your own, eg draw up a "four walls" type contract and rent out the venue.

 

Most ticket shows around here are done by promo venues that spam any new band in town, hoping to get enough of them together to put on a performance on an off night. It's the same three-band-hodgepodge found in the dive bars, with no ear for promotion synergy. Only, with mostly new bands, there's no main draw, and you'll have the same dive bar technical skills for sound and light (read: not much). Even if I actually could sell the tickets for this type of show, there's no way in hell I'd want that sort of deal.

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